


Escape

by Deonara2012



Category: ATEEZ (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Mutants, Death, Gen, Mention of genetic manipulation, Mutant Powers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-19
Updated: 2020-10-19
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:34:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27105811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deonara2012/pseuds/Deonara2012
Summary: They wanted a home, they wanted to be treated like people, and damn it, they would get that.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 17
Collections: Whole New World





	Escape

**Author's Note:**

> Note: Inspiration taken from the [Wonderland](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_BhMhZpAug) MV.

Up until the experiments were deemed complete, the group had been together. Now, though, they kept each of the young men separated, or so Mingi expected, since he was alone in the way-too-big room. That might have been due to the fire they had to keep burning in that room, to keep him comfortable, to keep him sane, to keep him alive. It didn't make sense, but then not much had for too long. The platform over the floor was just low enough that he could pull himself up on it, if he jumped to catch the edge. He spent a lot of time up there, especially when he knew the scientists were coming in for whatever reason they had. Usually, they needed to run tests of one kind or another, an attempt to know what was going on in his body, and he stayed out of their reach for as long as he could.

He never could for long; they used his affinity for fire, turning the one burning in the room down as low as it would go, and eventually he had to come down before things got too bad for him. They took him out of the room to a lab, tied him down tight enough that he had marks on his wrists and ankles for hours afterward. They never touched him like... well, they never treated him like he was human, all the touching on his body as impersonal as if they checked over a car, or a pet. He hated it, hated that they never saw him as a person, and that he'd lived with that for so long he could barely remember what it meant to _be_ a person.

He supposed, because he could control fire, because he got life and nutrients from it, that he could be considered not so human anymore. That didn't make it any easier when he knew, in his head, he still needed the things humans did. Which mean contact with others and a home. He wanted to go home so badly sometimes he nearly made himself sick, refusing to come down, and then he was too weak to fight when they did get up to get him down to make him better (or to study what happened when he did that to himself).

He caught his first glimpse of one of the others one afternoon after a particularly trying check up. Relief filled him at the sight of San, black hair wild around his face, eyes wide and dark with hate that Mingi could understand. At least one other had survived. He wasn't all that alone. He could burn this place down, but he didn't know here anyone was, and who and where to keep from burning. San's expression brightened as much as Mingi's had, and he almost smiled. "Yeosang is here somewhere," he said. "And WooYoung. I think they're in the same cage."

The guard with San smacked the back of his head, and Mingi yanked his arm free of his own guard, lunging at the man holding San. His fire came easily, catching on the man's clothing and burning brightly, set loose with a freedom Mingi wanted desperately. The man went down with a scream, and then San lunged past Mingi and Mingi turned to see his own guard go down, writhing on the floor as plants grew out of his suit. Mingi didn't care any more. He rifled their pockets, found a couple of key rings, and they went looking for the others.

They found WooYoung and Yeosang together, as San had figured, and the second keyring, with a ton of keys, made sense with the chains locked around WooYoung's waist. Mingi started to unlock them while San went to figure out how to get Yeosang free as well. Unlocking WooYoung took longer than Mingi would have liked. Once done, he dragged WooYoung over to where Yeosang stood, looking like an animal in a Zoo exhibit, on a rock encircled by a moat too wide to jump and too deep to get out of if he fell in. Mingi went back to the chains, looking up at the camera he'd spotted in the ceiling. "Yunho," he said, just loud enough for his friend to hear (if he watched the other end of the camera), "you need to get out of there, too."

The camera swiveled and focused on him. It didn't do anything else, but then he didn't think it _could_ do anything else. Certainly it wasn't equipped with a speaker or anything; all the communication had come from the men in the white coats. With a salute, Mingi went to join the others as they used their combined powers to get Yeosang over the moat. It almost didn't happen; Mingi had to lunge to catch Yeosang before he fell in. None of them wanted to find out what hid in the darkness of that pit. That made four of them, and if they could just find HongJoong, Sunghwa, and Jongho, they could get out of there. Yunho could help with that.

They wound their way through corridors, past doors, following the cameras as they turned to point the way they needed to go. Finally, they reached the control room, and Yunho, sitting in front of a wall of screens that showed a different scene on each one. "They're out already," he said when Yeosang asked about their missing friends. Mingi focused on burning the desk he was chained to, when it turned out none of the keys they had opened Yunho's manacle. WooYoung wasn't up to helping get that off his wrist yet, but soon, hopefully.

"Where are they?" San asked.

"Here," HongJoong said as he walked in, with all the grace of one of the big cats. Mingi didn't know which one. Sunghwa followed, dark hair over one eye, arms crossed over his chest as if he tried to keep warm. Or keep himself on the ground. Mingi didn’t know for sure which. Jongho followed, looking furious.

Yunho watched them warily. "You don't look happy," he said.

HongJoong smiled, a predator's smile, and they all took a step back. "I want to kill him," he said, his voice a soft purr. "Do you know where he is?"

Yunho's mouth twitched, and he turned back to the computer screens. "I can find him," he said. "And get you there."

"Then what?" Jongho demanded.

"Then we get out, and find a place to live, where we can be..." HongJoong trailed off.

"Not experiments," Mingi said. "I want to be a person again, like other people, with an apartment and a job and... and not with people trying to take me apart to see what I am. Or how I do what I do."

HongJoong's expression eased, just a little, his smile a fraction more friendly. "Yes," he said. "Something like that."


End file.
